Fallen
by Lightseeker GameWing
Summary: Many, many years ago, a human fell. Follow their journey through the underground in this series of short stories. (I say short stories because each chapter has timeskips in between. Also, sorry for the horrible summary.)
1. Prologue

It was a calm day.

Asriel was walking through one of the less-explored areas near one of the mountain's skylights. He brushed his paws over the buttercups that grew on the cracked and crumbling path. They were prettier than the other weeds that sprouted there, with their delicate leaves and yellow petals. They were in sharp contrast to the dark, gnarled, and thorny plants that sprouted from the gaps in the quiet trail. Asriel crouched down and picked one of the yellow blooms. Its little green leaves looked hopeful, and it smelled sharp and fresh. Wind whistled calmly around the young monster, cooling him and ruffling his white fur.

Suddenly, horrified and angry screaming echoed through the mountain. Asriel shot up and froze. More screaming, and a thud. He flinched when he heard the noise. The screaming began to die away, and he felt feeling return to his limbs. His first instinct was to run home, as fast as he could, and forget what happened. But something told him to follow the remaining echoes. As he warily followed the sounds, he realized he was walking towards one of the holes to the surface. Did something fall, something important, and that was why there was screaming? The monster relaxed slightly at the thought, but something told him that wasn't it. As he came closer to the spotlight that the sun shone on the spot, he realized that, indeed, something had fallen from the surface. Something important.

A human.

At least it *looked* like a human. He'd only seen them in picture books, so Asriel couldn't be sure. But it sure looked a lot like one. He advanced towards it carefully. Weren't they dangerous? He was pretty sure they were dangerous. But this one didn't look very dangerous. It was curled up and sounded like it was crying, and it was wearing a slightly torn lime and cream sweater.

Asriel kneeled beside it, unsure of what to do. Upon closer inspection, the human looked fairly wounded. It had bruises on its arms, where the tears in the sweater were, and one of its legs was bent weirdly. It had a bleeding gash on its back that was soaking the green of the clothing. It was visibly shaking, and the reddish-brown fur on its head looked ridiculously tangled. The monster took a deep breath. He wondered if it would even understand him.

"A-are you okay?"

The human did not respond.

Gently, he placed one of his paws on the human's shoulder. It flinched away.

The human's breath was shallower now, and the crying grew a little softer. Asriel blinked, indecisive. It didn't seem like he had time to run home, get his parents, lead them here, then get the human home. But he wasn't sure if he was strong enough to carry them. One thing was for certain: they needed help. And from the looks of it, quickly. The crying had stopped altogether, and there was nothing but silence. Praying that nothing happened along the way, Asriel rolled them onto their back slowly. The human had a swollen black eye and several more , he picked them up. They were surprisingly (and worryingly) light. Asriel had always wanted to be a hero; now was the time to be one.

Edit for formatting glitches.


	2. Chapter 1: Reading

The human was waking up.

His parents and Dr. Moon were standing around the bedside of the wounded child, murmuring amongst themselves. The rabbit-like doctor had refused to let him near, at least for a while. She said something about how they couldn't be touched, how they might have a concussion and loud noises might mess their brain up or something, blah blah blah blah blah. At that point, Asriel had been overwhelmed with curiosity. Finally, the doctor had allowed him a spot squarely at the end of the bed, as long as he didn't disturb the patient. He had obliged, and felt as if he had earned his position. Almost two days straight of silent kneeling seemed to be paying off as the human was slowly coming into consciousness.

They blinked tiredly, then seemed to shoot into near-panic when they noticed the monsters gathered around them. His mother, Toriel, smiled at them. "Hello, human!"

Asriel could tell that the human was doing all they could not to scream at the top of their lungs.

"Do not be afraid, young one. My name is Toriel, and this is Asgore." The tall figure towards the back of the room gave a little wave. "We won't hurt you."

The human blinked in confusion. Even from his position at the foot of the bed, Asriel could tell that they were still nervous. And wouldn't he be if he fell down a mountain and then was surrounded by a bunch of things he had never seen before? Especially if most of those things happened to be much taller than him.

Unable to resist an introduction, he strained to poke his head up high enough that the human could see him. "Hi! My name's Asriel. What's yours?"

He smiled patiently. They looked at him shyly. The room was dead silent. Dr. Moon was swaying awkwardly. Toriel took in a breath expectantly. Asgore, in a t-shirt and black pants, blinked.

Finally, the human spoke.

"C-chara."

"That's a nice name, Chara!"

The human blinked in response.

Dr. Moon seemed to take this as a sign to advance upon the child with her army of medical equipment. She briefly explained each device, then would administer them sequentially, usually in a fairly rushed and professional manner. She would record the measurements, then speed along to the next set. Every so often, she would look surprised or concerned, and would seem to add an extra note to her clipboard. A moment later, whatever brief emotion she had would be forgotten, and she would continue her flurry of assessments. The poor human looked tremendously overwhelmed.

Once the doctor completed her rituals, she requested the private audience of Asriel's parents. Before they fully exited to a more discreet location, Asgore suggested that Asriel try to make the human feel more at home.

Asriel returned to the room and kneeled beside them. (Wait, Chara was their name now!) He kneeled beside Chara, grinning at them. "Uh, hi again!"

The human blinked.

"Oh, you're probably confused, aren't you? Maybe? Do they teach you about monsters on the surface?"

Chara, still wide-eyed (but tired looking), shook their head slightly.

"Well, the Underground is where all the monsters live now! We can't live on the surface 'cause we lost a war and we got sealed down here with magic. That's all mom told me. I don't really know how the seal works, so you probably shouldn't ask me questions about it."

They smiled ever so slightly. Asriel barely noticed it, but it was there. He waited for the human to say something. Anything. After what felt like a hundred years, he spoke up.

"What's your favorite book?"

Chara mumbled something.

Asriel tilted his head. "I couldn't really hear you. What?" He scooched a little closer.

"I d-don't r-really have one."

"That's fine! We can find you one!" Before they could say anything, he had already dashed to the bookshelf and grabbed half a dozen books. Halfway through rifling through his stash, he remembered something. "Do you have a favorite genre?" Chara shook their head, and Asriel continued his search.

By the time he had found enough suitable selections, it seemed as though half of the bookshelf was missing. With a huff, he set down the stack of books. "There's To Kill a Chilldrake, The Insiders, Edgy Teen Dystopias (oh, nevermind, that's a series), there's- wait, no, that one's about the war, that one's about the evil humans, that one's about- Let's look at the picture books."

Chara probably wasn't going to want to hear about all the books where monsters killed humans, so he skipped over those ones (what? Are humans the only things monsters can write about?) and finally settled on a nice friendly one about a Temmie who aspired to be an adventurer.

"Here! How's this one look?" Asriel held up the book's cover. They squinted at the print on the cover. They gave a slight nod, but looked a little confused. Oh, no. "Is monster writing different from human writing?"

"N-no."

"Ok!" He decided to drop it.

Asriel walked over to where Chara was. He sat on his knees right in front of them, so they could see the words. He cleared his throat. He thought he felt them jump behind him, but he was probably just himself shaking from excitement.

"The Little Temmie that Could! By Thomas N. Rickshaw."

He opened the book, to see an image of a young Temmie in a train station. "Once upon a time, there was a Temmie named Tommie. Tommie's dream was to be an engineer." Asriel frowned slightly. He couldn't make himself sound like he knew all the words and just had the book for the pictures, like Mom could. He flipped the page.

An image of Tommie on a train covered the pages, with a thought bubble of him driving one. "He wanted to drive a train all over the world and take people where they needed to go. To practice, he would ride the train every single day." Another page turn.

"All of the people on the train knew him. He made a lot of friends that way!" This text was accompanied by an image of little Tommie smiling at a human couple and several monsters.

"Then, one day, the humans sealed all of the monsters underground." Asriel couldn't help the disappointed look on his face. He thought he'd finally found a book that wasn't about how evil the humans were! As a matter of fact, he felt a little betrayed. "Sorry, Chara. Do you want me to pick another one?"

They shook their head, a little more vigorously than earlier. It looked less like a twitch, and more like a conscious movement.

He selected the next page. "There were no trains in the mountain, so Tommie couldn't be an engineer." An image of the young Temmie crying appeared. "Do you wanna read?"

"N-no, it's fine."

The monster child internally beamed. They were opening up! That was good! Sure, they didn't want to read, but that was okay! They were saying more than one word sentences! He swiped the page, landing on a picture of Tommie staring out over the edge of a pile of purple bricks. "Hey! That's where we are now! The Ruins! It's where all the monsters used to live before we spread out more. Now, just a few live here, and it's where we go on vacation sometimes. Good thing we were here, huh?" Asriel looked up at Chara. They nodded, with a slight smile.

He refocused his attention on the book. "But Tommie realized he could help in a different way: He could explore Mt. Ebott and find other places for the monsters to live." The pages rustled as they turned.

"So, atop a noble steed, he flew out into the Underground with nothing but some Tem Flakes, paper, ink, and a lot of determination!" The accompanying image showed a young Temmie atop a menacing dragon. Asriel proceeded.

"Now, Tommie's adventures were in full swing! He came to a very cold place just outside of their settlement. All of the trees there were coated in snow and ice. The river was partially frozen over. He called it Snowdin." Chara snorted behind him.

"Tommie went a little further, into a place that he called Waterfall. There was a lot of water there." The image showed the little monster inspecting the surrounding area. Flip.

"He decided to find a good place to start a village. After going down some cave hallways, he found a little spot that seemed perfectly carved out for a town. He decided to call it Temmie Village." The page had Tommie peeking around a corner and seeing a particular part of the cave. And indeed, it did look like a town waiting to be settled. Flip.

"So Tommy returned to Home to spread the word about the new lands he'd discovered. The king gladly followed him, as did a lot of other monsters." Two boss monsters, similar in appearance to Asgore and Toriel, were trailing behind Tommie, who was atop his dragon. They were leading a procession of monsters of assorted heights and colors.

"T-Toriel?"

"Nah, that's not Mom and Dad. It sure looks like them, though! I thought it was them, too! They're way too young to have been alive then." Flip.

"And the monsters spread out across the land. Most of the Temmies followed Tommie to the town he founded, and they settled there." Several Temmies in t-shirts of varying color were in a beeline behind Tommie, who now wore a knight's clothing and had a sword at his side. They were walking into the cave with various tools and suitcases. One held a hard-boiled egg. Flip.

An image of modern-day Temmie Village appeared. "And the rest is history!" Asriel snapped the book shut with a grin. This time, Chara definitely flinched. "Sorry, did I scare you?"

"No." They certainly seemed like they were scared.

He scooted to the side a little bit, and turned his body to face them. "What was your favorite part? Mine was when Tommie got to ride the dragon!"

Chara looked temporarily lost in thought. They seemed to snap back in when Asriel tilted his head in concern. "Uh, it was when they were, um, leaving the Ruins. The picture looked nice?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it was a really cool picture. I liked the shadows and th-"

The door creaked open, and Toriel stepped inside. After nearly tripping over a book, she noticed the reading scattered across the floor. "Oh, Asriel…" She sighed and shook her head. "Please put those back soon. The doctor will be returning in several minutes."

"Ok, mom! We were reading a book about Tommie the Temmie!" He waved the book triumphantly in the air. "We're talking about our favorite parts. Mine was when he got to ride the dragon, and Chara's was when they left Home!"

Toriel smiled, looking tired. "I am glad both of you are having fun. Please remember to clean up." Finished with her news delivery, she stepped out of the room.

Asriel sighed, taking the book already in his hands and placing it back in the bookshelf. Chara watched wordlessly as he carried each object back to the cabinet. When he'd finally wedged The Story of Moonmoon firmly between The Annoying Dog: A Theory and Souls: Volume I, he sat back against the white shelf and exhaled. He looked up at his friend. They were fiddling with their hands, then seemed to notice him. They gave a small smile.

Today had been a good day.


End file.
